The study provides insight into critical performance trends across a surveyed portfolio gathered from more than 30,000 housing units created through tax credit financing. With industry-wide operating and performance data current through year-end 2024, the study found that:

• The national LIHTC portfolio continues to show strong occupancy, maintaining a median physical occupancy of 97% in 2024. Most properties remain well-leased, with only a small fraction below 90% physical occupancy, typically due to isolated, property-specific factors.
• LIHTC investments remain exceptionally strong. The cumulative foreclosure rate is just under 0.5%, with no new foreclosures reported by our data providers since 2021.
• Negative macro-economic conditions, including high interest rates and inflationary pricing, drove about a quarter of stabilized properties to operate at below breakeven in 2024. Some markets continued to experience rent collection and operating expense pressures, although these trends are being actively managed with proven strategies and financial safeguards. 

“The findings from our 2025 Affordable Housing Credit Study reaffirmed the growing need for affordable housing across the country and the continued resiliency of LIHTC properties,” said Cindy Fang, Partner and Tax Credit Investment Services Leader. “While the economic aftershocks of the pandemic created vulnerabilities, with nearly 26% of the LIHTC properties nationwide reporting operating deficits in 2024, most properties benefited from layered financial safeguards designed to mitigate foreclosure risk. For institutional investors, LIHTC properties continued to demonstrate resilience and reliability, underscored by a historically low cumulative foreclosure rate of just half of one percent.”

Beth Mullen, CohnReznick Affordable Housing Industry Leader, adds, “Although many anticipated – and our data now confirms – a period of market softness, affordable housing continues to prove its resilience. The enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025 marks a pivotal and encouraging milestone for the industry with the largest expansion of the Housing Credit in a quarter century. As we move forward through ongoing challenges, we invite industry stakeholders to leverage our study as a valuable resource for advocacy support, benchmarking efforts, and collaboration on best practices.” 

To complement the study, CohnReznick also released its newest dataset called the Affordable Housing Credit Tool(Opens a new window). Users can access interactive data through an online interface providing the most recent data. Together, the Affordable Housing Credit Study and Credit Tool help the affordable housing community benchmark portfolios, develop best practices, and gain further insights into the industry.

Methodology

This report is the eleventh in a series of periodic reports issued by CohnReznick Advisory LLC that addresses the performance of properties financed with federal low-income housing tax credits. To compile and analyze the data required for the assessment, CohnReznick requested the participation of every active federal LIHTC syndicator and the nation’s largest institutional direct investors. Twenty-nine housing tax credit syndicators and three direct investors participated in the 2025 survey. CohnReznick analyzed data collected from more than 36,400 housing tax credit properties. For a more extensive discussion of the methodology employed to collect and analyze property data, and a complete list of study participants that appear in the study, please refer to Appendix A.